MONTREAL — Max Pacioretty finally got the better of Zdeno Chara, beating the Boston Bruins captain to a bouncing puck and putting it behind Tuukka Rask for a key goal that helped the Canadiens keep their season alive.

Montreal beat Boston, 4-0, on Monday night at the Bell Centre and evened the teams' best-of-seven second-round playoff series at three games apiece. Game 7 will be played at 7 p.m. Wednesday at TD Garden, the winner advancing to the Eastern Conference final against the winner of tonight's Game 7 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers.

Pacioretty's goal, at 15:24 of the second period, made it a 2-0 game and was his first of the series. After scoring 39 goals in the regular season, the rangy winger had come into Game 6 with only one playoff goal in Montreal's opening-round sweep of Tampa Bay.

Rookie Nathan Beaulieu and journeyman Mike Weaver wound up with assists after Loui Eriksson batted a pass out of the air with his glove, unwittingly pitting Chara in a race with Pacioretty.

While both players have long moved on from that frightful incident three years ago in which Chara inflicted serious injury on the Canadiens winger when he ran him into the abuttment of the plexiglass, any time the two are juxtaposed against one another emotions rise.

Pacioretty almost had a second goal late in the second period, but Rask stopped his attempt.

On Monday, the Canadiens brought the kitchen sink and threw it at the Bruins, but the only thing they got in the opening 20 minutes the Bruins gave them.

A young defense continued to plague the visitors, this time early in the game as Kevan Miller fumbled a relay in his defensive corner, accidentally kicking the puck out in front where Lars Eller found it and swept a reaching backhander past a sprawling Rask for a 1-0 Montreal lead just 2:11 into the first period.

All the talk about the importance of playing with the lead, and once again the Bruins were behind early.

They earned some chances of their own, but Milan Lucic flubbed two early shooting opportunities, wasting some of David Krejci's more-inspired hockey of these playoffs.

Boston's best chance also came early, when Carl Soderberg beat Mike Weaver down the left side and set up Eriksson with an open look from close range, but Eriksson's shot hit the crossbar, deflecting over the net and out of play to the delight of the roaring crowd.

The second period looked like it would belong to the Bruins, who hemmed the Canadiens in their defensive zone for a stretch exceeding three minutes. Miller almost atoned for his miscue in the first with great poise maneuvering the puck from the point. But, like most of the night, shots were misfired, stopped, blocked or missed altogether.

Page 2 of 2 - Montreal center Tomas Plekanec gave the usually dominant Patrice Bergeron a tough time in the face-off circle, winning 8 of 9 draws in the first period alone while Bergeron went 2-6. Bergeron corrected his stat in the second period.

Only 2:15 after Pacioretty's goal, Tomas Vanek made it 3-0 on the power play with Gregory Campbell in the box for high-sticking, and the Bell Centre erupted in satisfaction of an impending Game 7.

Boston put on another extended shift with pressure in the third period, but David Desharnais saved a goal when he went to all fours and swept the rebound of a Chara shot off the goal line with his fist while holding his stick. No goal and no penalty shot for the Bruins.

Before Rask could make it to the bench for an extra attacker, Vanek hit the vacated Boston net to make it 4-0.

Chara, Lucic and Torey Krug got embroiled with Weaver and then Brian Gionta, turning the game's final minute ugly, as spectators threw drinks onto the ice.

Mick Colageo writes for the New Bedford Standard-Times of GateHouse News Service.